Iceland's defiant president eyes record fifth term

Source: Reuters

REYKJAVIK | Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:40pm EDT

(Reuters) - Iceland's president Olafur Grimsson looks set to win a record fifth term in office, riding a wave of support for his defiance of Britain and the Netherlands over massive debts from a bank crash, initial election results showed on Saturday.

Grimsson, 69, who also opposes joining the European Union, had led in recent opinion polls in the run-up to the elections, ahead of Thora Arnorsdottir, 37, a local television journalist.

A first tally of 20 percent of the votes showed Grimsson with 52.5 percent while Arnorsdottir, got 33.2 percent. The Icelandic presidential election is a single round with the candidate with the most votes winning a four-year term.

Grimsson's key moments in office have been his vetoes of bills approved by the centre-left government in parliament to pay about $5 billion to compensate Britain and the Netherlands after they bailed out local savers who had money frozen in accounts in an Icelandic bank when it collapsed in 2008.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/30/us-iceland-election-idUSBRE85T0MT20120630